1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to locating and sharing information in a peer-to-peer network. More specifically, techniques of the present invention provide a method for locating and sharing geospatial content in a distributed computer network.
2. Description of Related Art
Distributed services allow the sharing of information without the need for central data storage. A distributed network includes multiple computer systems that are able to directly exchange information. Specialized software applications running on these systems allow a user of the distributed network to search and share available content. In conventional implementations, the content shared in a distributed network originates from files located on one or more systems in the network. Shared information can include documents, music, movies and other type of information stored as a file or parts of a file on one or more computers. Searching and transporting the information is closely related to the physical presence of a distinct file.
Geospatial information is any data describing the location, characteristics, and/or features of a particular entity. Geospatial information is highly diverse and includes information from disparate sources such as terrain maps, aerial and satellite images, nautical charts, street maps, power grid data, transit route maps, geospatial notes and photographs. Components of geospatial information include addresses, coordinates, and identifiers.
Unlike music or text files, geospatial information can be massive in size and cover a wide geographic area in various resolutions. Web services generate content according to a requested location that may be specified by a region-of-interest and a set of filters and parameters. A Web service responds with an image of a map or information that produces the required view. Occasionally, geospatial information includes non-imagery information such as points, lines and polygons and related information within the generated content. Furthermore, some Web services may update the information based on temporal variables thus producing content affected by current time or real-time events. For example, a service may provide real-time cloud coverage for weather forecasting. The content managed by such a service may span the whole world in various resolutions and may be updated periodically. A client accessing the service specifies an area-of-interest and receives an up-to-date cloud coverage view for the requested region. In addition, geospatial content gathered or generated by the user may reside on local storage and accessed directly by the user's software. The user may utilize different applications to use the geospatial content. Applications such as two-dimensional or three-dimensional viewers are commonly available.
Geospatial content from different locations and services cannot be located and shared the same way as files. Consequently, improved techniques are required for searching, obtaining, and distributing geospatial content and sources in a distributed network.